


A Statement of Concern

by Okami_no_fude



Series: Linked Universe oneshots [13]
Category: Linked Universe - Fandom, The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (Manga)
Genre: Four and Twilight bonding, Linked Universe (Legend of Zelda), Mentions of Blood, Mentions of Dismemberment, Morse Code, Not Beta Read, Twilight Princess Manga spoilers, Yiga assassins, added 600 words with edit, from a livewrite, hurt/comfort i guess?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-26
Updated: 2019-11-26
Packaged: 2021-02-25 04:54:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,009
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21571120
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Okami_no_fude/pseuds/Okami_no_fude
Summary: When Four and Twilight get stranded by themselves after the world switching on them, Four hears a concerning statement from the older hero.Has elements from the Twilight Princess Manga
Series: Linked Universe oneshots [13]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1412722
Comments: 16
Kudos: 251





	A Statement of Concern

**Author's Note:**

> This was a livewrite done in the LU discord server that I never truly finished (but had promised to finish and upload it later on ao3).  
> I guess that was a good idea since I ended up adding 600 more words (oops).
> 
> This has one element from the official manga that differs from the game, so please understand that this oneshot probably would not be considered as truly canon in the LU fandom (just the angst potential was far too great for me to not use it).
> 
> [Linked Universe](https://linkeduniverse.tumblr.com/%22) belongs to @jojo56830 on Tumblr.  
> Legend of Zelda belongs to Nintendo.  
> The manga of Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess belongs to Akira Himekawa.

Four could not help but let out a small curse at their current predicament. 

Could the world not shift at the worst possible timing? And could it not dump the two of them nearby hostile beings?

Four and Twilight had been away from the group, doing some foraging when the telltale dizziness and headaches that occur when they are world-shifting for the duo had washed over them. 

As such, both of them were disoriented when the world around them had finished shifting. 

They were dumped near a firewood pit in a snowy wasteland.

The firewood pit which was a trap for unsuspecting, weary heroes. 

With a flurry of rustling papers and laughter, two people wearing masks with an inverted Sheikah sign had popped in front of the two heroes who were still shaking off the dizziness that came from the shifting.

"Four! Evade to your left!"

He heard Twilight shout, but the dizziness and the deep snow did not really help him execute a dodge, causing him to stumble.

He then felt himself being lifted up, a sickle at his throat.

"Well well, look who we have here? Two of the companions that the hero had been traveling with recently. Where is the hero though?"

Four heard Twilight let out a growl that was a bit animalistic. 

"Why does that matter to you, Yiga filth."

Shaking off the last of his dizziness, he looked up as best as he could without getting his throat slit to see Twilight having his left hand hovering over his sword. He was alternating between giving glares at the offending two Yiga assassins and concerned glances at him.

"Let him go. We don't even know where the Champion is right now," the ranch hand growled lowly, teeth bared. 

Four felt the cold sting of the sickle blade touch his neck. 

"I find that very doubtful," the other assassin snorted out loud. "Lift your left hand away from your sword if you don't want your companion to have their throat sliced open."

Four saw Twilight tensing up, his eyes showing the inner debate he was having, before he slowly did as he was told, staring at the guy who was holding Four at knifepoint. 

"Alright, I'm not touching anything, " Twilight said, keeping his hands open and away from his body. 

Even though the sickle had slightly backed off from his throat, it was still too close for Four to make any head movements. The smith tried to convey with his eyes to the ranch hand to not endanger himself when he noticed Twilight was doing something odd.

He gave him three long blinks.

Then one long and a short one. 

Three short blinks and two long blinks.

Twilight was staring at him while he gave side glances between the series of blinks, pretending that he was listening to the Yiga assassin. 

Three long blinks. One long and one short...

Wait, was Twilight blinking the Morse Code at him?

Four quickly racked his head to decode that pattern.

_ O _

_ N _

_ 3 _

Did Twilight have a way to take the assassin in front of him down with surprise? He himself was in a position where he could kick his capturer where the sun doesn't shine, so he could be able to catch the bastard unaware.

Seeing Twilight's unwavering gaze, Four decided to trust Twilight and quickly signaled back.

Three long blinks.

One long, short, then long blink.

_ O _

_ K _

Twilight showed understanding in his eyes before he briefly glanced down to his feet which he then gave a tap on the snowy ground. So he was going to tap the count countdown?

Four could work with that.

"So you are going to stay silent about the whereabouts of the champion, eh?"

A tap.

_ 1. _

" Of course the friends of the accursed hero aren’t going to break easily, huh?"

_ 2. _

"Would chopping off a body part get you and your companion to sing, I wonder?"

_ 3. _

Four swiftly delivered a kick backward with all his might and quickly flung his head backward to smash in the bastard's nose.

As predicted, the Yiga bastard holding him had unconsciously loosened his grip on Four, and he slipped through, giving the assassin a low sweep to his feet. 

As soon he had knocked the assassin out with a hard hit of his sword pommel to the head, he turned his head just in time to witness Twilight swiftly drawing his sword out and using the momentum of the unsheathing to deliver a devastating blow to the unsuspecting foe.

"Been there, done that. I rather not have it happen again, thank you very much," Twilight scoffed to the assassin who was now crumpled on the ground unmoving, red quickly staining the white terrain.

_ Wait, what did Twilight say? _

Four really hoped his fellow hero was joking with that response to the Yiga.

_ He has experienced dismemberment? Surely that did not happen? _

"Uh, Twilight?" Four called out. 

The aforementioned hero looked up from wiping his sword. “Yeah?”

"With that response... you were joking when you said that, right? About the dismemberment?"

Before Twilight could give any sort of response, Four let out a huge sneeze and shivered, his body finally registering the cold weather of the place they were dumped at.

"We have to quickly find the others and get to a safe place," Twilight ignored the smaller hero’s question as he pulled off the wolf pelt and draped it over Four's shivering frame. "Come on Four, get on my back. We'll find the others faster with my wolf senses."

The ranch hand swiftly shapeshifted before he could get a word in, and signaled to his back with a nod of his canine head. 

Four reluctantly got onto the wolf's back and burrowed his hands into the soft warm fur. 

"You know you are not getting away from my questioning later, Wolfie," he grumbled.

The wolf pinned his ears back before they began the trek in the snow.

\---

It took a while for Four to actually follow up the question, as Twilight kept evading the quiet questioning. Four was ready to openly question Twilight about it in front of others when the said hero had promised him to explain it when they got absolute privacy from others.

" I really don't want others to know since I can see both the old man and the cub getting overprotective if they learn about it."

Twilight had a point, as he could see how those two would react, and Four conceded. 

It was three days later when the group had arrived at Rito village for some much-needed rest that Four got the chance to hear his story.

" So you really had your arm chopped off?" Four whispered in alarm.

Twilight pulled his bangs back as a bitter smile pulled at his mouth.

"Yeah, I was still a fool back then, charging at my foe without thinking what kind of powers and abilities they might have had. I was just...desperate to save my friend and the children. I got swarmed by the summoned bokoblins and they pinned me down for the leader to..."

Twilight gave a small shudder as he unconsciously brought his right hand near to the top of his left arm. 

"...to bring down its' axe on my left arm. "

Twilight gave a small snort as he began to roll up his sleeve. "Luck was on my side that day, as the light spirit that dwelled in the spring where all of that happened managed to attach my arm back, apparently along with the power of the Triforce of courage I had at that time."

Twilight bared his arm for Four to look at, and sure enough, although faint, there was a jagged ring of scar tissue near the top of his arm.

Four, for once was at a loss for words.

To learn that one of his fellow heroes, his comrade, his  _ friend _ had actually lost a limb once, even though very briefly, was shocking. 

While Four did have his fair share of painful wounds, it was never to this extent. 

Did Twilight have any problems with his reattached left arm? 

The ranch hand shook his head when he had voiced his concern. " Not really, Four. While I did have some trouble with getting my fingers to react quickly at first, any mobility problems faded away quick enough,” Twilight rolled his shoulder and flexed his arm to prove his point.

“But wouldn’t there be some lingering pain? Even if a miracle had happened, pain from such a trauma-inducing wound would still persist,” Four asked.   
Twilight paused his movements at that question, and the smith could see his fingers hovering over the scar now hidden under the sleeve once more. 

“Yeah there was some phantom pain,” the ranch hand admitted. “It took a bit longer to disappear but it gradually did. It just gets a bit more painful when its the rainy season," he said, rubbing his left arm.

Four stared at Twilight in silence, something nagging at his mind with that statement.

_ Rainy days. Twilight rubbing his left arm on days when they took shelter from bad storms. Four sometimes getting a glimpse of him flexing his left fingers when Twilight thought no one was looking. _

_ Twilight switching his sword to his right hand when they were fighting off enemies under the rain, going unnoticed by most in the heat of battle. _

“Twilight how bad is the pain on those days?” Four spoke softly.   
“...”   
“Is the phantom pain the reason why you sometimes switch your sword to your right hand?”   
Twilight gave a start at Four’s inquiry, surprise coloring his blue eyes. 

“When…?” Twilight whispered.   
“When did I see you do that? Last time when we ran into a monster camp while we were seeking shelter from the rain in Wild’s Hyrule.”

The silence stretched on between them as Four watched Twilight glanced away from him, sighing as he raked his fingers through his hair.

“I thought no one would have noticed. I can wield a sword with my right hand just as well as my left, so I thought the change in my sword skills wouldn’t be noticeable in the confusion of the battle.”   
The ranch hand gave a small smile to the smith. “I am suitably impressed by your observation skills, Four. And to think you managed to come to that conclusion with that little information that quickly, too. Nothing seems to escape you, does it?”

A small smirk escaped from Four’s lips at that comment, before he quickly sobered up and took the conversation back on topic. “Well?” 

Twilight hesitated for a brief moment, before nodding. “It can...get pretty bad, bad enough that it would hinder my sword-wielding noticeably. I try to avoid fighting during bad days, but that can’t always happen, can it? Hence why I switched to my right hand that day.”

Four let out a small sigh at this new information. “I can kinda understand why you hadn’t said anything about this to us since phantom pain isn’t something new or rare for any of us.” It did come with the job of being a hero, after all. “But you could have still let us know so we can act accordingly, you know? You shouldn’t have to push yourself through the pain when we could avoid any fighting. And no buts on that,” he added when Twilight opened his mouth as if to argue. “I will bet that the Captain would agree with me. He should have experience with working around with these situations.” 

The older hero rubbed his neck at the soft reprimand. “True, I’m not going to bet against that.”

The two heroes sat quietly at the edge of the cliff, watching the sun steadily rising and shining over the quiet, still slumbering village. 

“Thank you, Four.”

The smaller hero gave a glance to his companion. Twilight was giving him a small smile, his blue eyes expressing his emotions within those few uttered words.

Four returned the smile. “That’s what families are for, right?”

  
  
  



End file.
